


A Light in the Darkness

by mysticmajestic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Family Reunions, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-29
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 11:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16135955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticmajestic/pseuds/mysticmajestic
Summary: Hiroyuki Shirogane has seen his fair share of death. From losing his son and daughter-in-law in a car accident, to losing his beloved grandson Takashi to pilot failure in space. As an old man, he's come to terms with his losses, deals with his grief day-by-day. There's nothing he can change, so he must get on with it all, you know?Except when a massive mechanical beast turns up on Earth with five human pilots, he never expected to be reunited with his dead grandson. Just this once, death doesn't have to be a permanent fixture in Hiroyuki's life.





	A Light in the Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Title was going to be "くらやみ の なか の ひかり (Kurayami no naka no hikari)" but I wasn't sure of the exact translation and didn't want to fuck it up. 
> 
> Anyway, I've had this story on my 'currently working on' folder for months now, way before season 6 aired, I believe. It was time for me to finish this and post it up - especially since we still don't have confirmation about Shiro's family yet. He's the only one that doesn't appear to have any, which is upsetting.
> 
>  **Important Note:** Whilst Japanese words are italicised, please assume that all Japanese people are speaking their native language in this fic. Italicised speech is English and is meant for the readers to understand, even if Hiroyuki cannot.

At seventy-nine years of age, Hiroyuki Shirogane has known his fair share of loss and grief, an irony considering that ‘Hiroyuki’ means ‘a lot of happiness.’ His golden years are not so golden anymore, not since he lost his son Daichi and his daughter-in-law Naoko in a car accident over twenty or so years ago. The only shining light in that dark period had been his beloved grandson, Takashi.

Now that light has forever gone out, leaving him stranded in the darkness, completely alone.

Lighting the incense, Hiroyuki kneels in front of the _butsudan_ to pray, just like he does every day. Prays to get through this day as well as he had the last, prays that his dearly beloved family knows peace. Especially Takashi. When the bad news came, there was nothing to cremate. When you die in accidents on Earth, you can be easily recovered depending on the circumstances. No one ever plans a trip to space to recover a body.

Furrowing his brows, Hiroyuki scolds himself for thinking about that. If he lets himself fall into the trap of his own grief, he fears he’ll never recover. Three years have passed since Takashi’s death. He’s doing rather well for a sad old man. He cannot let his hard-won progress be stolen from him.

Clearing his mind of all thought, he returns to his prayers. When he finishes, he carefully levers himself up to his feet, joints creaking and cracking as usual, and goes for his usual walk through the garden and out into the town. It’s another day that is sure to pass as simple as the last. 

 

* * *

 

After the loss of Daichi and Naoko, Takashi became Hiroyuki’s sole pride and joy. Watching that boy grow up into a strong, kind man had brought a warmth to Hiroyuki that he had feared long gone. They were each other’s only living relative. Hiroyuki had hoped he would live long enough to see Takashi get married and have children of his own. The Shirogane family was notorious for marrying and having children young. It was not out of the realm of possibility that Hiroyuki would live to be a great-grandfather.

But ever since he was a young boy, Takashi had a love of the stars, of space, that could not be beat by anything on the Earth. Pocket money went toward star charts and space books, figurines and documentary DVDs. Posters lined his walls. His notebooks were full of little sketches of planets in the margins, surrounding the careful notes he’d taken from school.

It was not an obsession; it was a passion. One that would not die.

He remembered when it first started.

“ _Sofu_ ,” said Takashi, at only five years old, “when I’m big, I’m gonna apply to the Galaxy Garrison!”

“The Galaxy Garrison?” Hiroyuki asked, gazing over the tops of his glasses that perched precariously on the end of his nose. He closed his morning newspaper, folded it, and set it on his lap. “Whatever for?”

“I want to be a pilot.” Takashi was prone to puffing up like a _fugu_ whenever he put his mind to something and was prepared fight the world to prove he was right, and this time was no different. Hiroyuki had to bite back a grin at the way Takashi’s cheeks protruded and his lips puckered in a pout, standing as straight and stiff as a board with his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “The best there ever was. I want to see the universe, _Sofu_ , and meet all kinds of aliens. I want to be the best space explorer there ever was!”

“Well, if that’s what you want to be, you better be prepared to work hard,” said Hiroyuki. “Lots of other people want to be the best space explorer there ever was. Getting qualified to go up into space is not easy.”

“I’ll work really, really hard! I promise!”

“Not just when you get to the Galaxy Garrison, either.” At Takashi’s confused head-tilt, Hiroyuki clarified, “You have to be good all through school. From kindergarten right up until you graduate from the Garrison years and years from now. When you have a dream, you must have good work ethic, and that’s something you can get by learning now and being patient. What do we say about patience?”

“Patience yields focus.”

“That’s right. And the Garrison is in America, so you have to learn English.” Hiroyuki wondered if he was putting too much on the boy’s shoulders. He was only five years old. But the way Takashi’s eyes gleamed, the excited trembling in his body, he knew that Takashi would try his best to rise to the challenge. He was Daichi’s son alright. “Do you think you can do this?”

“I will, _Sofu_! I will, I will, you’ll see!”

“Good.” Hiroyuki ruffled Takashi’s hair. “Now go play.”

 

* * *

 

As Hiroyuki wanders through the town, nodding politely to people as he passes them, he wonders if he should have dissuaded Takashi from that dream. If anything, he’d likely still be here. But he has never been fond of dissuading children from their dreams. This was always meant to play out as it did, forces beyond his own comprehension at work, weaving together a story he has no right to dictate.

He sits on a bench in the park for an hour, watching ducks swim in a pond full of algae. Behind him, children laugh and shout as they play on the jungle gym, watched by attentive parents. He remembers all the times he took Takashi there, watched him climb and laugh and play. There’s nothing he would not give to have those days back.

Once he realises he’s getting too maudlin, he stands, fixes his clothing a little, and wanders back home. He ignores the sting of tears as he walks. Crying has never done him any good. He walks slower than usual, giving himself time to get hold of himself.

“Ah, Shirogane- _san_ , good morning!” says his neighbour, Mariko. She’s wearing a sunhat and a pair of gardening gloves and is in the middle of watering her garden as he passes by. “I have leftover carrots from my batch if you would like some?” She turns off the hose and sets it aside. “Save you having to go and get some from the store at their ridiculous prices!”

Her laughter reminds Hiroyuki of the tinkling of wind-chimes in a soft summer breeze.

“Mariko- _chan_ , you are a delight,” he says. “I would love some.”

“Wait right there, Shirogane- _san_ ,” she says, beaming. Turning swiftly, she barely takes the time to step out of her clogs before she hurries inside. She’s very agile for someone in her mid-fifties.

Over the past few years, Mariko has been a wonderful help in keeping Hiroyuki from losing himself to his own grief. They’ve been neighbours for nearly twenty-nine years. She had been Takashi’s favourite person in the whole world (“Except for you, _Sofu_! You always be number one!”) because she kept giving him bananas every time she saw him.

The moment the news had broke about Takashi’s death, she had come over every day for almost an entire year to make sure he was functioning semi-decently. He doesn’t know where he’d be without her.

Mariko almost trips over herself as she hurries outside, slipping her feet back into her clogs. A plastic bag full of carrots sways enthusiastically in her hand.

“Here you are, Shirogane- _san_!” she says, holding the bag out. “If you need more, feel free to ask me. I always have lots to spare. Green thumb, as we always say. My plants just keep growing and growing!”

“Thank you, Mariko- _chan_ ,” says Hiroyuki, taking the bag from her.

They talk for a few more minutes, exchanging pleasantries and talking about the weather, until there’s nothing more left to say and Mariko cheerfully waves Hiroyuki goodbye. As he goes, he sees Mariko’s youngest grandson toddle out of the house with a slice of banana squashed in his tiny fist, babbling nonsense. Hiroyuki’s quick to look away, steadfastly ignoring the jealous twinge in his heart.

Once inside his home, he slips off his shoes in the genkan and hobbles into the kitchen to put the carrots in the fridge. Goes over to the table and retrieves the newspaper he always leaves there, then takes it back to his armchair by the window in the living room that overlooks the garden and reads until his eyes droop. He falls into a light slumber.

He’s awoken with a start by frantic knocking on his front door. At some point the newspaper slipped out of his hand and come apart, littering the floor around him. Grumbling under his breath, he carefully navigates his way out of the mess and hurries to meet the person outside making all this racket. The greeting dies before it ever reaches his lips. He knows that uniform the man and woman, both foreigners, wear. Gunmetal grey and black. When Hiroyuki learned of Takashi’s dead, that’s the uniform the people wore when they informed him.

They speak English to him, and he frowns in confusion. He never learned the language; never saw the reason. He had never left Japan before. Clearing their throat in obvious embarrassment, one of them fishes out a circular, hand-held device and speaks into it. The woman’s voice translates their words in a cool, automated tone with abnormal pauses between the words.

“Shirogane-san, we are hear to inform you that your grandson Takashi Shirogane is alive, he has returned to Earth in a ship called Voltron. He is currently on a mission but we are here to take you to the Galaxy Garrison in America.”

The one not doing the speaking suddenly cries out, lunging forward to catch Hiroyuki as his knees buckled and gave way underneath him. Hiroyuki doesn’t notice.

For the first time, he allows himself to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed!


End file.
